Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Sunday, November 05, 2006 2:10:30 AM
The Kingdom Related to Past and Present - Part 2
A study of the kingdom of God must necessarily stress the distinctions between the covenants and between the two Testaments of the Bible. It is important to begin by showing the profound unity between the Testaments in that the Old prophesied of the New and that the New is the fulfillment of the Old. This will prevent misunderstanding of the emphasis on differences.
Matthew is meticulous in linking Jesus Christ with the Old Testament. At least forty quotations from the Old Testament are made in his Gospel. Many more allusions are made to its teachings and ways of life. These passages are not only meant to show that the Old Testament had predicted the coming of Christ and the kingdom of God; they are also intended to demonstrate that Jesus with His kingdom teaching carries on the heart and essence of Old Testament religion.
Systems developed by the Jewish leadership were man made perversions of the revelation given through the prophets. They emphasized the material and physical, which were but shadows of the spiritual reality. This is seen in the words of Jesus to the Pharisees who accused the disciples of not keeping the extra-Biblical laws their tradition had added to the commandments…
Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?" He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘ This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’[
For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men…" [Mark 7].
In the sermon on the gospel of the kingdom, Christ warned, ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil’ [Matthew 5:17]. His is a validating and confirming ministry, not an abrogation of past arrangements between God and man.
Covenant of Grace
The unity of the Bible is best seen in its history of redemption given under the Covenant of Grace. As those who attack the doctrine of the Trinity because it is not a Biblical term, there are those who deny the Covenant of Grace for the same reason. As in the case of Trinity the term Covenant of Grace is a theological term that collects a vast amount of Biblical truth.
Genesis chapter 3 recounts the story of Adam’s sin, from which we get the doctrine of the Fall of man from his created state of righteousness into the state of sin. Since the fall of Adam, God has in all ages revealed but one arrangement by which sinners may be saved.
The great plan for separating the serpent and mankind is seen in God’s judgment of the evil one, ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel’ [Genesis 3:15]. Herein is the first gospel promise; the grace of God will come in the seed of the women. The Saviour must suffer, but in the process He will overthrow the evil one.
Grace is seen immediately after the Fall in the way God deals with Adam and Eve. They were afraid and hid, and made themselves aprons of fig leaves, but "the Lord God made them coverings of animal skins" [Genesis 3:21]. The coverings were provided by God to replace the man made aprons, and they required the shedding of blood.
The rest of the Bible is a progressive revelation of the Covenant of Grace to bring redemption to a multitude of people that no man can number from every kindred, tribe, nation and tongue.
The vital unity between the newly come kingdom of God and Old Testament religion is seen in Christ’s teaching on the final phase of the kingdom in its glorious consummation. ‘Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven’ [Matthew 8:11]. Gentiles from all parts of the earth will enter the everlasting kingdom with the Old Testament patriarchs along with John the Baptist. Old Testament believers and those who enter the kingdom share a common salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. They have a common destiny because all are under the canopy of that arrangement labeled the Covenant of Grace.
[Credits to Walter Chantry's God's Righteous Kingdom]
Next post: Grace in the Covenant with Abraham